Tag Archives: Impact Campus Ministries

There are a ton of words and phrases that we use to describe our view and vision of what a disciple is and what discipleship means. Even among our own ministry we have used a plethora of different words to demonstrate how we talk about being a disciple or discipling others. Paul says in Corinthians 11:1 “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”

Being a disciple is someone who has submitted to Jesus and seeks to become like Him. Discipleship is imitating a mentor (disciple) who imitates Jesus.

If we were to take a look at discipleship at the time of Jesus we would see his talmidim (disciples) following him everywhere, imitating his every word and his every action. The desire of a talmid (disciple) was to know what the rabbi knew, in order to do what the rabbi did, in order to be just like their rabbi in his walk with God. Perhaps this gives new meaning to the words of Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jesus says to his talmidim, “go do the same things that we have been doing the last three years. Just as I taught you, as we have lived life along side of each other, go teach others. Walk along side of them, live life with them, continue to imitate me so that in imitating you, they will be imitating me.”

Submit to Jesus and become like him and we can do this by imitating a mentor (disciple) who imitates Jesus.

We had an awesome start to the year handing out 600 Impact bags with food, laundry soap, water, and Impact group meeting times. The thing that was most interesting was those that seemed surprised that a “Christian” group was handing out bags of stuff with no expectation of a sign up list or any strings attached. We simply wanted to welcome students back to Indiana University of South Bend and let them know that someone cares. That’s it, Jesus loves them and so do we. Do we want them to come to our bible studies? Sure! But the main goal was for them to feel loved and wanted. The more they see the love of Jesus, hopefully the more open they will be to getting involved with a campus ministry group!

Community is a big key in campus ministry. One of the biggest issues that college students face is the need to find a place to belong. It may be a club, sports team, or a particular group of new friends and at a secular college it can mean doing things they wouldn’t normally do. Many students are willing to sacrifice the quality of their community in order to fit in and as a campus ministry, we want to be that place. Our goal with the bag hand out was simple:

Personal Retreat Days or PRD’s are one of the required components to my work as a campus minister with Impact Campus Ministries. In all honesty, it was one of the things that made the Impact organization attractive and different than any other ministry position I have had to this point. These occur once a month and are my way of recharging spiritually, and sometimes physically. There aren’t simply enough words to explain why I can’t be effective as a minister without taking PRD’s. It doesn’t matter how busy the schedule is, it simply had to be included or at some point, I simply won’t be functioning well mentally, physically and spiritually. Here are 5 things about my personal retreat day.

1. Turn the phone to silent or simply don’t take it. For me, the biggest distraction is email so it is better if I don’t take the phone or put it in a spot where I am not checking email.

2. Find your spot. I like to do one of two things usually, either hang out at a coffee shop and or go hiking if the weather is decent. My third option is at home only if I can find a place where I won’t be distracted. It becomes to easy to slip into work mode if I am not careful.

3. Necessary items for me are my iPad (which contains my Bible and the current books I am reading), my iPod for music, downloaded podcasts of “Pray As You Go” to help set my focus for the day, and usually my journal to record thoughts and conversations that occur between God and I.

4. Avoid distractions. For me that usually involves work related things like email but also I have to be in a place where I can be an introvert, put in my headphones and focus.

5. Relax and enjoy the ride. It is okay to recharge and renew, it is not a lazy, slacking off day. It has purpose and great value as long as we are willing to sit back and listen to God. Some of my best insights into Scripture have come on my PRD’s because I am simply engulfing myself in God’s presence.

Simply put, we need to seek each other out and do life together, reaching past the afterglow of the speaker’s message at retreat. As leaders, we need to facilitate that connection by loving our students intentionally, encouraging developing friendships.

I like this quote because it boils down the need of community to a simple statement, doing life together. This shows itself to be an elemental need wether you are a person of faith or not. Speaking as an introvert by nature, even we need other introverts and the occasional extrovert (notice this is not plural, if you are a true introvert, one extrovert goes a long way) to do life with.

Sometimes I think the problem is the emphasis we place on the idea of the personal relationship with Jesus. We get so caught up on the singular aspect of “Jesus and I” that we forget about the need to be in community with each other. Community is how we flourish and grow both physically, mentally, and spiritually together.

Throughout the bible, especially in the Jewish culture, community was a given. Even to the extent of biblical study. The Hebrew word haverim means “students who gather together to grapple with the text”. Students are literally together debating and challenging the meaning behind biblical text in order to develop a deeper understanding and interpretation.

With college students, the need for stronger relationships exist. That’s why off campus, spiritual retreats can be so effective, quality time with each other away from cell phones, computers, homework, and social media. Our challenge comes in maintaining the bonds that develop when we return to class and the busy-ness of life. Whether your in your church or a college ministry, find those people you can trust and do life together! Make it a priority to set aside the time necessary to be with other believers.

Here are 12 things we learned on our support raising journey with Impact Campus Ministries.

-1 Let God have control. This is a must, if he has called you to a ministry that requires you to raise your own support, he will get you there. It still took our effort and hard work but we had to be attentive to the Holy Spirit and allow God room to work.

-2 Learn to tell your story. You can have all the facts and figures you want to have about why this is an awesome ministry to support but if you don’t make it personal, people won’t connect. Tell your story and your passion for ministry.

-3 Get over yourself. This was hard for us because we just simply were raised where you didn’t ask people for things. As if that wasn’t difficult enough to get over, I am an introvert and would rather have a had tooth pulled than talk to people on the phone in the beginning. Get over it, the more you talk to people the easier it gets.

-4 Learn humility. Not because we were asking people for support but because we are relying on God to provide and had to recognize the He is God, not us.

-5 Don’t look for an easy button. We all want to get there quick and the temptation is to look for the fastest means to the financial goal, the big supporters. The bottom line is that we are looking for partners in ministry, people who will support us and pray for us and who we lift up in constant prayer. The broader the base, the broader the prayer support. By the way, just so you know… there is no easy button!

-6 Listen to God and let the Holy Spirit lead. I can’t say this enough, there were so many times that I held off sending a letter because I felt the time wasn’t right or I stopped to make a phone call or send an email because I just had the sense that it was the right thing to do. We had several instances where our ministry information arrived at a time where a friend was looking for another ministry to support.

-7 Be open and proud about support raising. God called us to this ministry and we learned to be proud and passionate about it, even the support raising. It is not a shameful thing to support raise and certainly not a taboo subject. We have supporters who have decided to partner with us simply because we started a conversation. One of our faithful supporters noticed what we were doing because I asked him to like our Impact Facebook page in a online contest that the staff was having.

-8 Pray… a lot! We couldn’t do this enough. Support raising has been the most challenging thing we have ever done, spiritually, physically and emotionally. Our prayer life has increased at least 10 fold because we need the constant connection with our Father.

-9 You have to ask! There is no other way, you have to be able to ask the question, “Will you support our ministry?” Say it over and over to a friend, a spouse, or an accountability partner but there is no way around it. When we became bold enough to make the ask, we started getting better results.

-10 Find some accountability. I started off with an accountability partner then transitioned to an everyday accountability call. I can’t tell you how valuable it is to have someone who will bust your chops for not doing what you said you were going to do. Were it not for the accountability, I would have been much less productive.

-11 It’s not who you think… “They said no, they must not like us…” It simply isn’t about you or who you think will partner with the ministry. It is about who God has called to do His work in this way. Allow people a chance to say yes or no and trust that He will provide for what He has called you to. You will simply be astounded at what God will do when you give up control.

-12 Enjoy the journey! We have learned so much and grown so much in the last two years raising support. The simple fact is you can learn to enjoy it! Talking about our ministry and what God is doing through it always energizes us.

Okay, it’s official, I am now a full time campus minister with Impact Campus Ministries! It has been a long road of support raising, coupled with limited time on campus but now we are ready to hit it full force.

Thank you to all of our faithful supporters from those of you who have been with us from the beginning to those of you who have faithfully answered the call to help us close out the final push campaign. We would not have made it without the prayers and support of everyone! God has truly been faithful and it is to His glory that he has brought us to a place we once thought impossible. We ask for continued prayers as we plan and transition to full time work on the campuses in South Bend, IN. While support raising is never truly done, it now takes a back seat to our work with student on campus. We are truly blessed!

Genesis 1:3-4 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God said that the light was good. (ESV)

This is the first time good is mentioned in the Bible. All through the account of creation God looks at the works of His own hand and calls it good. But how did we get to the point in society that good has become less desirable? It is sometimes considered as being just okay, passable, acceptable, or mediocre but never is it looked at as being the best, awesome, or beyond description. Perhaps we down play the word good to much.

By definition good can mean “to be desired or approved of: we live at peace with each other, which is good | a good quality of life | [ as exclamation ] : Good! The more people the better! pleasing and welcome: she was pleased to hear good news about him; expressing approval: the play had good reviews.”

If we view the word good as a noun, then it has a completely different feel to it. “That which is morally right; righteousness: a mysterious balance of good and evil. Benefit or advantage to someone or something: he is too clever for hisown good. (goods) Merchandise or possessions: imports of luxury goods.

I want to use the word as it is used in Genesis to describe what God has done by his hand and his shaping.

Our support raising journey has not been an easy one. If it had been, I don’t know that I would have grown in the way that I have both as a campus minister with Impact Campus Ministries and as a follower of Jesus Christ. Anyone who has ever known me, would know that I am an introvert. I prefer to sit, think, and observe then retreat to my own private world. As a result, sharing my story and God’s story, where he has brought me from and the vision he has placed in me for students was not second nature.

When we started the support raising process, it was so difficult to talk with people. I had no idea what I was doing and how to do it because I had to figure out how to open up. To remember this was God’s gig and not my own and to trust His goodness. There was a choice to make, “where do I want to belong, do I place my security in God?” Basic trust has to be placed in God. This is just one piece to the journey we have been on. By His grace, and to His glory alone are we almost fully funded. $62 more per month is all that is lacking to be fully funded with Impact. Two years ago when we were looking at raising the full amount, it seemed impossible. Now we are on the brink, and I would call the work God has done in me and with the support raising good.

Sometimes the impact that people make are immediately global… sometimes they are in our own backyard. Last week we were at a high school church camp where one of our Impact alumni and two Impact supporters baptized two young ladies into Jesus Christ. While the impact may not be on a global scale, the places Christ may call these two young ladies could very well have a global impact. From the campus, to the camp, to the world!

Here is a repost of a blog from co-staff Impact South Bend, Sarah Koutz, about her upcoming trip to Kenya with several other of our Impact staff.

“Impact Campus Ministries’ president, Bill Westfall, has been dreaming, studying, and working diligently for nearly three years developing a special initiative called Impact The World. I cannot tell you how excited I am to have been asked to participate in the pilot group’s trip to Kenya as Bill continues to refine and develop the program.

Impact the World is a discipleship tool that Impact will use in the years ahead to equip college students for a life-long commitment to Jesus as Lord of their life. Specifically, it is a service-learning experience that will utilize a cross-cultural setting with high intensity activities to capture the hearts and minds of students. It is designed to help participants understand their purpose in life and to give them the tools/skills/perspective necessary to set them on a life-long trajectory toward spiritual maturity.

Ultimately, the goal is to see the participants actually living out their faith in Jesus through a dedication to self-sacrifice and kingdom service. It purposes to engage students at multiple levels (heart, mind, and strength), and is packed with intellectually stimulating lessons that are coupled with heart-captivating activities that serve to solidify the learning process. It examines the negative elements of the student’s own culture from the perspective of a foreign culture.

We’ll be heading to Kenya on May 19th and spend time in three different parts of the country and return on June 1st.”